Iron Mountain ski jump

Thursday, July 2, 2015

REMEMBER TO BREATHE

The
last six weeks have been quite intense. We moved 650 miles, from a fairly large
house into a fairly small condo. Just trying to fit things in, and then find
them, is a challenge. Finding our way around and getting established with new
plumbers and dentists and librarians and waitresses is a bigger and more
important challenge. And then two of my oldest and closest friends died.

As
I started out to walk this morning, I realized I was not breathing.

I
once had some body problems, freezing shoulder primarily, that took me to a
deep muscle therapist. Bjorn said that most of her patients, including me,
preferred to drop their bodies off so she could work on them overnight and then
pick them up in the morning. As she dug her fingers deep into my joints and
muscles, I would tense up at the pain. She would say, not unkindly, “Remember
to BREATHE.”

We
do that when times are tense. We stop breathing. It’s the worst thing we can
do. Breath is life. When we breathe deeply, we are taking in the world,
becoming one with all that is, receiving life, becoming whole. Breathing deeply
requires us to slow down, stay in the moment, just be.

When
times are tense, it’s the simplest thing to do, and perhaps the most important.
Remember to breathe.

John
Robert McFarland

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

The
picture is of the Pine Mountain ski jump in Iron Mountain, MI, the highest
man-made ski jump in the world. I started this blog several years ago, when we
followed the grandchildren to the “place of winter,” Iron Mountain, in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula [The UP].